Part 17

Regret exceedingly my inability to attend Conservation Congress. I note from several different programs there will be distinguished speakers on the question from all over the states. I hope as a result of the meeting something more than speeches will be accomplished in conservation of the equities of all American citizens. Things vital for their comfort have been transferred to corporate power by unjust legislation, without adequate legal restraint on corporate power compelling fair play and justice to all interested. A special interest should be elicited to compel a rate of freight on all fertilizers for land from which we all derive our sustenance. Not more than four-tenths of a cent per ton mile should be permitted for long hauls, nor five-tenths of a cent per ton mile for short hauls. Any well managed railroad could haul fertilizer for that price at a profit—referring to all kinds of fertilizer, lime, phosphate, rock, etc. If you would take such action as would accomplish this one thing, you would do more for the good of mankind than all the conservation efforts have accomplished to date. Wishing you great success, I am sincerely,

O. C. BARBER.

President WALLACE—I have appointed the following committee on nominations: C. E. Condra, E. G. Griggs, A. B. Farquhar and H. C. Wallace, and B. N. Baker, Chairman.

Get together and be ready to report nominations promptly tomorrow. Remember, we will have a very busy Congress. I want you to be here at 2 o’clock promptly, because we will commence at 2 o’clock if there is anybody here, and some of you will be. This afternoon, I am very sorry to say, we will not have the privilege of hearing Brother W. H. Page. I have a letter stating that sickness prevents his attendance. Instead of that we will take up the report from conservation committees, and as far as possible from the states. Let me urge you to cut your speeches down to five minutes, or I will shut every man off after five minutes, no matter who he is. Don’t tell us about your resources. We know about them. Tell us what you are doing. Make it specific and to the point, and then this Congress will hear you patiently, but they won’t hear you after that, and I won’t either. We must come down to business. This afternoon we are to have Professor Mumford on the subject of live stock and soil fertility, a matter of immense importance. The ladies will come in after that, and I hope you will all bring your wives and sisters and cousins and aunts. We will have an address on the “Farmer’s Wife,” who you have heard is the most important person on the farm and the one who bears the greatest burden—by Mrs. Ashby of Iowa, followed by Mrs. J. N. Lewis of Kansas. Tonight we are to have a great treat. Mrs. Moore of the General Federation of Women’s Clubs; then the “Church and the Open Country,” by Dr. Warren H. Wilson, New York City, superintendent of home missions of the Presbyterian Church, and then finally, to round up, an address by Dr. Harvey W. Wiley, Washington, D. C., Chief of the Bureau of Chemistry, United States Department of Agriculture, of whom you have all probably heard. That will be the closing address this evening. Be here promptly at 2 o’clock. The Congress will now stand adjourned until 2 o’clock.

_FIFTH SESSION._

Recording Secretary GIPE—Will the Congress please come to order. The Rev. Dr. George Hamilton Combs will pronounce the invocation.

INVOCATION.

Almighty God, our Heavenly Father, we thank Thee for this world in which we live; for its beauty, for its adaptation to our needs, for the skies that arch it over, for the grass beneath our feet, for the seasons with their lessons, for all the wonderful stories of life. Thou hast made it for man and Thou art in it now. Help us to realize that this world is instinct with Thy life, and may we see and hear God, not only in the skies and in the singing of the stars, but in the humbler things beneath us, and in that stiller music of all growing things. May we seek this priceless heritage, may we preserve this good world unimpaired, handing it down enriched and beautified, to our children, those who shall come after. We thank Thee for this Congress and for the great purposes and ideals for which it stands, and upon the men and women gathered here we pray Thy blessing, upon their homes while they are absent, that their children, their wives, their all, may be defended from harm. Upon them, in their deliberations here, grant that in wisdom they may plan and in strength they may execute, and that they may have a vision, not only of the day, but of the years that shall come after. We thank Thee for this good work, and oh, do Thou help us that we forget not that while in the pursuit of this material good we do err; that after all and that above all the riches of our people are not in the mines, in its fertile fields, in its forests, but in its men and in its women, and so send us the greater harvest, not merely of corn and wheat, but of charity, of goodness, of the great and patient fidelities of life, and help us all to live that we shall have advanced at least a little the coming of the day when righteousness shall cover the earth even as the waters cover the sea. And so upon this earth of ours may God’s sovereign will be done even as it is in Heaven. Amen.

Recording Secretary GIPE—I am asked by Mr. Baker, the chairman of the committee on nominations, to announce that a meeting of that committee will be held at 3 o’clock this afternoon at room 775 of the Baltimore Hotel. I now have the honor to present Governor R. S. Vessey of South Dakota, who will address the Congress and remain in the Chair after he has finished that address. Governor Vessey of South Dakota. (Applause)

Governor VESSEY—Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen of the Conservation Congress: I have no set speech to make this afternoon, and I think, if I remember aright, the president said we would be permitted to talk five minutes on what we have done in our state in regard to conservation. So I just want to enumerate a few things that we have done up in our new state, practically only of age, twenty-one years old, in the past half a dozen years. We have reclaimed, by drainage, several hundred thousand acres, and we are reclaiming by irrigation something like a quarter of a million of acres, and nearly one-half of that is a Federal enterprise. We are in all parts of the western part of the state planting newer and similar individual irrigation plants that will develop a large part of the state. We have in the past been endeavoring to conserve the fertility of our soils. We are endeavoring to conserve manhood and womanhood by making them more efficient in the great agricultural work, by sending out into their community and out in their neighborhoods teachers along the line of agricultural and domestic science, and other matters pertaining to make the home more efficient and more modern. We believe that the time is coming, and that very soon, when every rural district will have a social and educational center for the upbuilding of that community. And when that is done, I look to see the day when the people will not, as soon as they have accumulated some wealth, move into the city for the purpose of giving their children an education, largely so they may enter vocations in life other than the farm life. We believe also that the heart should be educated the same as the mind. A committee of educators in our state has reported, not only along this line, favorably, but they have compiled a text-book and are introducing it into our schools, and we expect that our teachers will be trained along the lines of giving to our students ethical as well as material education. So that we can, at the same time we are improving the mind, build a character that will mean more to us in the future than the accumulation of dollars and cents. We have, I think, a progressive state, and we want to create conditions so that people from the further East and the more congested centers of population will find a haven of rest and a place where they can come and not only better their financial condition but better their social condition as well. I appreciate very much indeed having this opportunity of saying these few words in the interest of the conservation of our resources. I think that we have been looking so long upon the land that has been turned over to us by the United States Government, as something that is only for use for our own material well-being. We are beginning to learn that we are only here for a short time, and that if we are going to be honest with those that are coming after us, that it is our duty not to rob that soil, but to turn that soil over to our children, and from them to their children’s children, in just as good a state of fertility as it comes to us in its virgin state. And when we do not do this, we are robbing our posterity of something future generations are entitled to, that they are just as much entitled to as they are to our good name. And this, I believe, is a wonderful revelation. And it seems to be taking all over the country, to know that in farming a section of land that I have an obligation to those who may farm it a hundred years from now, and that it should be my intention, that it is my duty, and I am under obligations to keep that in just as good state of fertility when I leave it as it is when I take the responsibility of taking the products that are needed to sustain life from that land. It is a pleasure to meet the people of this Congress, the Third Conservation Congress. Now we will listen to the further program by the secretary.

President WALLACE—I have great pleasure in reading to this Congress a letter from a man you have heard about, commonly known as “Teddy.” (Applause. Hurrah for Teddy.) I wrote him a month ago and asked him to address this Congress. He declined to do so, but I would not accept his declination. Then I had a letter from him, a personal letter, which I did not care to read to this Congress without his permission. Unfortunately, I do not have it here, but expect to get it this afternoon or tomorrow from my office in Des Moines. So I will simply read you the letter giving permission to read another letter which I do not have, but you shall have if I get it in time. Here is the letter:

My Dear Mr. Wallace: I greatly wish I could attend the Congress. You are very welcome to read as much of my letter as you desire, or as much of this letter as you desire. I most emphatically believe that there is no movement in our country at the present time of such importance as the developing of a higher country life. This was the object of the Country Life Commission which I established. What we need most is good citizenship; that is, a good family life, a high quality of individual manhood and womanhood; and above all things, we need these in the country districts, for in the long run every nation’s welfare must primarily depend upon the welfare of those who till the soil. The man is greater than his work. The farm can only be made what it should be by paying chief attention to the securing of the right man and woman on the farm. To develop soil fertility, we must develop rural manhood and rural womanhood. We must have a social life on the farm far better worth living than such life has been in the immediate past. Pray accept my heartiest sympathy and good will. Very sincerely yours,

THEODORE ROOSEVELT.

(Applause)

Recording Secretary GIPE—We are now going to have brief reports from some of the national organizations. Mr. W. E. Mullin of New York will report for the National Board of Fire Underwriters.

Mr. MULLIN—Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen: The National Board of Fire Underwriters has been interested for many years in every element of conservation. They believe in the conservation of the soil, the conservation of the waterways, the conservation of the mines, the conservation of childhood and the conservation of our homes. We believe in everything that savors of practical conservation, but they are specially concerned in the conservation of our utilized forces.

[Mr. Mullin’s paper in full will be found in Supplementary Proceedings.]

President WALLACE—I must ask a favor. I will not ask the Congress to listen to more than three-minute speeches on these reports, and I wish all the speakers to understand that when that bell rings it is time for them to quit. They must learn to boil down. (Applause) As I said before, we do not care about the resources of your states. We can read that in books. We want to know what you have done in the way of conservation. You can say all you ought to say in three minutes. Moody used to say that a man had no business to pray more than three minutes, that he could ask the Lord all he really wanted in three minutes, and then it was time to quit. (Applause)

I take pleasure now in introducing Major E. G. Griggs, president of the National Lumbermen’s Manufacturers’ Association, who will give the report for that association.

[Mr. Griggs’ paper is in Supplementary Proceedings.]

Chairman VESSEY—We will now hear from Mr. W. J. Rushton, of the American Association of Refrigeration. I have pleasure in introducing him to you.

[Mr. Rushton’s paper will be found in Supplementary Proceedings.]

Chairman VESSEY—We will now hear a report from Hon. E. T. Allen, Forester for Western Forestry and Conservation Association, entitled, “Private Conservation on the Pacific Coast.”

Mr. ALLEN—The Western Forestry and Conservation Association, for which I report, is a league or alliance of a dozen coöperative forest fire associations maintained by timber owners in the Pacific forest states: Montana, Idaho, Washington, Oregon and California.

These five states contain over half the standing timber in the United States. Already furnishing a fifth of the Nation’s lumber, they constitute its great remaining storehouse of future supply. In other words, they contain the mature timber which must bear the burden of bridging national shortage until an adequate new crop is ripe. Because of climatic conditions and rapid growing species, they also contain the deforested land which, by reason of adaptability, most demands encouragement to produce this new crop, to which you must turn in the future for timber as you do to this region for iron and to the South for cotton. This is why you are directly and vitally interested in what every agency is doing to protect and foster these forests of the West.

Believe as you may concerning division of responsibility between state and nation, or policies of controlling the development of natural resources; but never forget that the forest ranger is actually on the job, saving the forests for the rest of us to talk about. If he had not been there for the last ten years, the national forests would be mostly old burns not worth arguing about. We want more, not fewer, of him, and we want Congress to spend more money to hire him and build trails for him to use.

The states, too, are waking up, but progress in this direction seems slow when we consider that of the tremendously important forest resources in the West the majority is in private hands, and that it is the attitude of the commonwealth that governs the ability of the private owner to manage it to best advantage for all concerned.

All these conditions I have hinted at—failure by Congress to give the forest service adequate funds, slow awakening of state responsibility, and realization that the Pacific Coast is both the last and the most promising field of forest industry—have inspired the most vigorous and efficient private movement for forest conservation ever known—the allied coöperative associations of timber owners in the Pacific Northwest. They fully realize that the control of such a stupendous community resource entails grave responsibilities; that their ownership is largely a public trust and that they must account for their stewardship. They also know that no new fields remain and that this is by no means inexhaustible; that to avoid heavy loss they must guard the forests they have, and to perpetuate their business they must have new ones coming on. Self-interest, more potent than philanthropy, demands abandonment of the wasteful methods prevalent in the past history of their industry.

With this new point of view, the Northwestern lumberman, far from being an element requiring regulation by the public in the interest of forest preservation, has become the leader in reform. It has been chiefly through his aggressive campaigning that state laws have been improved, bearing as rigidly on the careless member of his own brotherhood as upon anyone else. He gives his financial support to educational work directed at both lumbermen and public. He hires professional foresters to help him try such better management as conditions will permit. But particularly, through coöperative associations, he has taken the lead in fire prevention. And admitting his motive to be largely selfish, the benefit to the consumer is none the less. To the man who needs lumber, to keep it from burning up is conservation that counts.

After so much preamble you may wonder what we have actually to report; what we can offer in the way of results. Here are some of them: Last year was one of the worst for forest fires in American history. Loss of life and property was terrific. But the private protective systems allied with the Western Forestry and Conservation Association carried safely through the season fully 16,000,000 acres of forest, containing at least the stupendous amount of 300 billion feet of timber. They kept the loss of private timber in Idaho, Washington and Oregon, the three states hardest hit, down to one-fourth of one per cent. How did they do this? By raising and spending $700,000 for patrol and fire fighting, and actually extinguishing 5,580 fires.

It was a telegram from the president of the Western Forestry and Conservation Association, with the standing of our work behind it, that caused the ordering out of the United States Army to assist the undermanned forest service on the national forests.

This year’s records are not compiled, but will be quite as interesting. Through their alliance the associations turned to account every lesson each learned in 1910, and spread increased patrols equipped with new advantages of perfected organization, telephone and trail systems, supply storage, and automobile and motorcycles where these could be used. Organization permitted close and systematic coöperation with state and federal forces. Every association ranger served as a police officer and one Washington association alone got over thirty convictions. Offending lumbermen were made the first examples. Hundreds of fires were extinguished but not one was allowed to become serious in 1911.

Our association serves as the one and only common meeting ground for all agencies for forest protection, including state and federal as well as private fire officials, and employs a trained forester to collect and disseminate for all information that will assist in solving problems of reforestation, legislation, education and like matters demanding expert knowledge or central facilities. It thus had the chief responsibility for forest legislation in several Western states last winter and did more than had been done in all preceding Legislatures.

It has published the first comprehensive book on reforestation and forest management in the West ever issued, now used as a text-book by the Forest Service and forestry schools.

It furnishes all newspapers in the Northwest with regular bulletins throughout the fire season, not only giving reliable news but keeping the necessity and method of precautionary measures before the public.

It issues hundreds of thousands of fire circulars and stickers, with a highly perfected system for putting them where they will count. This year, with the aid of state authorities, it put an illustrated folder with simple questions and answers on forest protection in the hands of every school child in the Pacific Northwest, an enterprise requiring the printing and complicated distribution of thousands of pounds of material.

It furnishes state officials and others with practically all the mottoes and catchy material used for posters and other publicity matter in the West. It has even placed this kind of thing in the time folders of every railroad traversing our forest regions.

I cannot take your time to recite the many other activities of our coöperative movement, but these will indicate its scope and method. The Northwestern timber owner is doing his part to protect your resources that he holds in trust. If Congress, state and public will do as much, you have little to fear.

Chairman VESSEY—I now take pleasure in introducing Mr. Ferdinand G. Schwedtman of St. Louis, chairman of the delegation of manufacturers of the U. S. A. I have the honor to present him to you.

[Mr. Schwedtman’s paper is to be found in Supplementary Proceedings.]

Chairman VESSEY—The next speaker is William Edward Coffin of New York, vice-president of the Camp Fire Club of America.

[Mr. Coffin’s paper is in Supplementary Proceedings.]

Chairman VESSEY—I wish to introduce Dr. George W. Field, representing the National Audubon Society.

[Dr. Field’s paper will be found in Supplementary Proceedings.]

Chairman VESSEY—Is Mr. McBrien, representing the National Educational Association, here?

Is Mr. Edward R. Taylor, representative of the Electrochemical Society, here?

Mr. TAYLOR—It is my pleasure to represent the American Electrochemical Society. There are ten thousand chemists in the United States. They are largely concerned in the working out of economic problems and the best utilization of all substances capable of adding to our material prosperity. Many of these chemists are members of the American Chemical Society, the American Electrochemical Society, the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, and the Society of Chemical Industry, all of which societies are deeply interested in the best conservation of our natural resources and are in full sympathy with the objects of this Congress.

Chairman VESSEY—We will next hear the president of the Iowa Federation of Women’s Clubs. Is Mrs. M. H. Weller present? Those who have papers that will take five or ten minutes to read can just speak on a short synopsis of their papers, and have the papers filed. They will be able to say more, so that the people will understand it better than if they only read part of the paper.

Mrs. Weller was not present.

Chairman VESSEY—Is Mrs. Carl Vrooman, representing the D. A. R., here?

I am very much pleased to present her to you. (Applause)

Mrs. VROOMAN—Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen: I feel weighted with a heavy weight of responsibility, as I am here to represent 77,000 Daughters of the American Revolution in general, but the chairman of the conservation committee of this organization in particular—a woman who has, I venture to say, done more for the cause of conservation than any other woman of our day—I was about to say than almost any man—since she is the very proud mother of Mr. Gifford Pinchot.

This society of women, “federated and organized”—to quote Mr. Pinchot, “spells only another name for the highest form of conservation, that of vital force and intellectual energy.” These 77,000 women do indeed represent a perfect Niagara of splendid ability and force—enough, if intelligently harnessed and directed, to furnish the motive power to keep revolving all the wheels of progress in this country.